Moses vs. Jesus

Last month my friend Annette sent "The Take Away? Moses Got It Wrong" article to a friend who didn't agree with the conclusions drawn. Annette asked if I would respond to her friend's questions and I think this topic deserves more discussion, so I will gladly revisit it. If you missed the original post last August, scroll down or click on the link above.

Sorry. Don't think I agree with this. Go to Biblegateway.com and search for Satan. There are multiple references that refer to Satan - as the individual - not a collective group. The name for Satan and the devil are interchangeable (see the different accounts of Jesus' temptation in the dessert - one gospel calls him Satan and Luke refers to the tempter as the devil). Also - I don't think Moses was wrong to kill those worshiping idols. Don't forget - when they finally entered the promised land - God commanded the Israelites to completely wipe out the inhabitants so they would not be tempted/mislead/intermarry with the pagan people there who worshiped idols. Additionally, God did not discipline Moses for his actions either which I think we would've seen had Moses been wrong (just like later on when Moses takes matter into his own hands and the punishment is that he isn't able to enter the promised land). It would be very interesting to know what this Preists' thought process was to come to this conclusion.... what do you think?

I want to start with the last question; but I also want to begin with the caveat that I don't think my commenter, who is well read in the Bible, reads the Bible the same way we do in the Catholic tradition. Catholics don't typically read the Bible in a literal way, but rather search for layers of meaning. As Catholics, there is one principle to guide us every time we open the Bible. The Bible is both the word of God and the words of human beings. Jesus is the Incarnational model for this; just as Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human being (man). In the Bible God uses as authors human beings with all their human limitations. The Bible is God's Word which is at the same time thoroughly human, on the human level for human beings.

So we may begin by first agreeing to disagree, which is itself another form of peace.

I can't claim to actually know what Fr. Rolheiser's thought process was, but he does appear to be within a solid tradition of thought in his reading of Jesus behavior and conclusion. Jesus corrects Moses and Jesus is greater than Moses and Scripture points that out. Look at Hebrews 3:3, "Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honour than the house itself."

Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it--to better and complete our knowledge, our revelation, of God. We are supposed to learn something from Jesus instruction in this story of the woman caught in adultery. What have we learned from this incident? And does it in any way contradict what Moses taught? There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus was contradicting the teaching of Moses--everyone in the mob was ready to apply "the Law." But as Jesus showed, when the law is interpreted through humans it is full of human flaw. For instance, where was the male adulterer? And what about the commandment to not kill?

This story is not in the oldest versions of John's Gospel, and I've even heard it said (although I can't find any online reference, so draw your own conclusions) that some early versions of the story read, "let he who is without this sin cast the first stone." The implied emphasis being that all of the men willing to punish this woman had committed the same sin without punishment.

I consistently think the best way to read the Bible is to focus on what our message is today--what are we to make of this story in light of our lives.

What did Jesus do? He did not judge, he did not condemn, he did not punish.

Jesus, as the Son of God, reveals God's truer intentions of mercy throughout the Gospels. Jesus specifically contradicted the law of Moses on more than one occasion. Here are two other examples, one with regard to dietary laws (Matthew 15:1-14); the other concerning "an eye for an eye"(Matthew 5:38-48).

I recently read a meditation from Franciscan, Fr. Richard Rohr, on the subject of justice. In that he said, "The desire for vengeance, even after having been wronged, is a far cry from the cardinal virtue of justice.

God's justice does not need retaliation or punishment, but merely honest accounting and making of amends. This is the kind of restorative justice we are promised to receive from God. Retributive justice (tit for tat) Jesus opposed (Matthew 5:38-48). In the world of mere retribution, both fall into the pit, as Jesus puts it (Matthew 15:14)."

Sacred Scripture shows an evolution of man's capacity to understand justice. If you put yourself back in the ancient world, there really was no justice; not for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned. If you were small, if you were weak, you were used as a commodity and tossed aside. Justice was what the king said. It's easy to see how the ancients could have confused retribution with justice. God brought to the people of Israel His justice, which far surpassed anything they had seen before.

Look at Deuteronomy 10:17-19 "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Did you hear that? You even have to love the stranger. Jesus corrected that. "I tell you, love your enemies..."

Now look at Deuteronomy 15:7-8 "If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be." Even back here we have the beginnings of the theology of love, as the people of Israel tried to understand this great love, this incredible mercy of God and how to live it.

But it is with the prophets that we truly hear the cry of the Lord for us to establish justice, God's justice, here on earth. It is the prophets that Jesus quotes the most. Look at Isaiah 58:6-7 "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?"

Look at Micah 6:8 "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Look at Hosea 6:6 "For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." Jesus fulfills the prophets! Jesus quotes all of these prophets; he's practically hitting us over the head with it. Go and Learn! (Matthew 9:13).

It's all about mercy and love. Mercy, even if it's undeserved, because if we deserved it, it wouldn't be called mercy.

And this is how we should interpret and respond to these passages today. I strongly believe that. I shudder at the idea of slaying idolaters. How is that okay? How was Moses right to do that? If Moses was right, that thinking would lead you, perhaps, to slay an idolater or two today. There are many on Wall Street (there were many at the World Trade Center).

Now, as for the question about the use of the word Devil vs. Satan, I don't feel personally confident on where the word Devil is used and where the word Satan is used by merely looking at English translations, and I certainly am not an expert on the original Greek and Hebrew texts. I'm really not sure how much gets mixed in translation. However, despite that caveat, I think using the words Devil and Satan in this way is a very useful vocabulary tool for talking about the nature of evil. The point about all of that was really the question--what is the nature of evil? How do we fit into that--today? This story, John 8:1-11, can teach us something about mob violence, about bullies, victims and bystanders, about how easy it is to fall away from the body of Christ; about how easy it is to become part of the body of Satan.

Jesus is The Way.